


Leorio x VS x Gym

by MyMisguidedFairytale



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Canon Compliant, Comedy, Gen, Gyms, Humor, Light-Hearted, Mentor/Protégé, One Shot, Post-Chairman Election Arc, Self Confidence Issues, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, Workplace Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 04:51:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18866080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyMisguidedFairytale/pseuds/MyMisguidedFairytale
Summary: When Leorio learns that the Hunter Association boasts a top-of-the-line gym, he can’t wait to work out, but it may just become an exercise in futility when he sees how intense the regulars can be.





	Leorio x VS x Gym

**Author's Note:**

> _Leorio x VS x Gym_ was originally written and published on July 09, 2014 on [tumblr](https://cheadle-yorkshire.tumblr.com/post/91286383492/fanfiction-hunter-x-hunter-leorio-x-vs-x-gym).
> 
> Everything below is preserved as it was originally posted:
> 
> **Title** : Leorio x VS x Gym  
>  **Pairing** : none  
>  **Word Count** : 1888  
>  **Summary** : When Leorio learns that the Hunter Association boasts a top-of-the-line gym, he can’t wait to work out, but it may just become an exercise in futility when he sees how intense the regulars can be.  
>  **A/N** : Takes place concurrently with Chapter 345.

_**Leorio x VS x Gym** _

“Why didn’t you guys tell me there was a gym here?” Leorio looked between the small group assembled in the break room. Cheadle and Cluck were gathered around the coffeemaker; Cheadle offered him a cup, which he declined.

“I can’t think of a better way to pass the time,” he continued. Everything else he’d been shown in the building had either been too boring or downright weird—the medical suite had been good to explore, and top of the line, but some of the accompanying accoutrements, like the poisons lab and massive x-ray room and giant freezers, had definitely fallen under the umbrella of _weird_.

“Have you been there yet?” Cluck slurped on her steaming-hot coffee. “It’s really nice. There’s a lap pool, too. And a target range, if you need it.”

Leorio gave her a strange look, before shrugging and gesturing out towards the main hallway. “I couldn’t find it yesterday. What floor’s it on?”

“Floor Three. Leorio,” Cheadle answered. “Just…take it easy, okay?”

“Sure, sure!” Excited to get a chance to pump some iron again—he made sure to go to the gym regularly over the past year, to keep in shape, but the Hunter Association gym had to be nicer than anything he was used to—Leorio resolved to go the next morning.

_Floor Three_ was not a very helpful designation—the place was like a maze, and there weren’t any signs—but Leorio happened to get on the elevator the next day with someone carrying a gym bag and decided to follow them on the off chance they were going to the same destination. When they arrived at a set of plain double-doors, Leorio was less than optimistic, but a glance on the other side revealed rows of pristine, expensive-looking exercise equipment and a few buff-looking people in workout clothes standing around another guy lifting weights.

He had to sign in with his Hunter license—“in case you break anything, we know who to charge for damages,” the guy he followed had said when he asked why, which really created more questions than it answered—but once inside it was impossible to decide where to go first.

There were treadmills and ellipticals and punching bags and unfamiliar machines that Leorio thought looked more like they belonged in a space training program than in a gym. There was an entire _wall_ of weights, and a few lifting benches, and he decided that was as good a place to start as any.

A short, cute girl dressed in pink stood at one end of the wall, and Leorio was surprised to discover that he knew her—she had been one of the ones looking after Gon while he was in the hospital, but they’d only spoken a few words to one another.

“It’s Biscuit, right?” He watched her size up the weights before picking one up with one hand. “Need anyone to spot you?”

“Sure.” Her voice was cheerful and light, but there was an edge of _something_ there that he couldn’t quite place. Cluck and Cheadle’s voices had sounded like that too, come to think of it. “Grab another weight for me?”

Dutifully, Leorio reached for another of the same weight. He pulled it off the shelf, nearly dropping it on his foot from how unexpectedly heavy it was. The only notation he could see was on the side, and he shifted his grip to try and read it, staggering over to the weight bench and realizing with a growing sense of trepidation how easily the girl had lifted something that was causing him so much trouble.

“They start at 450 kilograms,” Biscuit offered helpfully. “The heaviest are a few tons. But that’s nothing for a Hunter, right?”

It reminded him of training with Zeburo, in preparation of opening the gate to the Zoldyck estate. “…Right,” he agreed, realizing that a few of the others in the room were staring at the awkward way he was handling the weight. He helped Biscuit secure it on the rack, before standing behind her on the bench.

“I’m going to do five sets of ten reps, okay? You ready?”

Leorio turned all of his attention to the task at hand, lightly holding his hands beneath the bar on either side of Biscuit’s head. She began her reps, and Leorio counted them for her, settling the bar back on the rack after each set. He needn’t have worried about her; she handled the weight like it was nothing, and her technique was perfect. She never wavered once.

After she finished, she sat up, breathing deeply and wiping the sweat from her forehead. “Hey, Ginta!” she called across the room, to a big man with a huge mass of curly black hair Leorio recognized as another one of the Zodiacs. He was currently drinking a bottle of water, and standing next to a rack of towels. “Toss me one!”

A water bottle came flying across the room, and Biscuit caught it effortlessly. “Do you want one?” she asked Leorio. “It’s a special blend made just for us, with enough vitamins and electrolytes for optimum energy efficiency…”

She went on about the benefits of certain nutrients, offering him advice and detailing her typical routine. Standing from the bench, Biscuit offered with a devious smile, “Do you want a try?”

Bench-pressing that much seemed more like an exercise in futility to Leorio, so he refused, gesturing towards the other side of the gym. “I heard there was a pool here, and I thought that might be fun.”

Yes, that seemed like a safe option. Something simple and relaxing, and he could get in a workout on his own terms. No lifting anything ten times his body weight, no suspicious energy drinks, and no strange looks from strangers.

He found the door to the pool area on the second try, and he breathed in the smell of chlorine as he passed through to a locker room area and changed into his swimsuit. There was someone else by the side of the pool, stretching, and Leorio dove into one of the lanes, taking a minute to get used to the water before he took a deep breath and kicked off of the wall, beginning a steady if unhurried freestyle.

After turning around on the other side, he was halfway across the pool before a blur of motion passed by in the lane next to his. Leorio tried to see what it was, but couldn’t make out any movement beyond the ripple of water left in its wake. He had almost reached the wall again when the same blur passed him, and he realized it was the other guy, swimming so fast that he’d overtaken Leorio twice just in the time it’d taken him to cross the pool once.

That impressed Leorio more than anything, but it still put a bit of a damper on his own self-confidence, and he resolved to speed up his swimming, to try and see how well he could do against the human fish on his right.

After awhile he stopped counting the number of times the other guy passed him, but he’d swam a decent amount of laps himself, so the next time he touched the wall he climbed out on unsteady legs, dripping as he located his towel and disappeared back into the locker room to shower and change. Maybe he could get in some time on the treadmill or another basic machine before he called it a day.

Back in the main room, Ginta was using one of the punching bags while Biscuit, off to the side, did lunges, two more giant barbells in her hands. A couple of the other Zodiacs, Botobai and Kanzai, stood by the weight rack, picking up some of the heaviest ones from the lowest shelf.

Watching everybody move so methodically through their chosen exercises, handling the machines and their bodies like professionals, Leorio put into words the feeling he had gotten when the others had given him those pointed looks or described this place with such ambiguous language. He had thought nothing of it at the time, but now he knew it for certain—he was completely in over his head. And they all had known it, before he even walked in the door.

Suddenly, he was torn between wanting to leave, and wanting to load up the 450-kilogram weights and show them all a thing or do about what Leorio Paladiknight could do. He had even taken a few steps towards the bench before changing his mind and rerouting himself towards Biscuit and Ginta.

She looked up at him as he approached, and set down her barbells.

“Can you help me?” he asked her, rubbing the back of his head and shifting his weight. “I don’t really know what half of these machines are, and I could really use the help from someone who knows what they’re doing in here…”

“You should stretch first,” Biscuit told him. “Or maybe start with something lighter? You could always jog a little, or jump rope, or—”

“Stop picking on the poor kid, Biscuit.” Botobai‘s deep rumble cut through the air. Leorio disapproved a little at the _kid_ designation, but at least it was a welcome change from the reverse.

“Alright, alright.” She frowned before replacing the barbells on the rack. “You’d probably be better off at one of the machines. Maybe the rowing one? The bicycles are empty, too. They’re not all that intense—you just have to program in how tough you want to make it. You were a great spotter, so I’ll return the favor anytime.”

Leorio brightened at that, and when Botobai offered to help him set up a machine, Leorio accepted. A few minutes later, he was on a bicycle, and had just plugged in his music when the person on the machine next to him did a double take.

“You’re Leorio, right?” he asked. “I recognize you from the elections. I voted for you.”

The declaration made him a little uneasy and a little proud, remembering how close he had come to _leading_ this entire organization. In the end, he was glad it wasn’t him. He didn’t think much of his presence at the elections, and in the few instances where other Hunters called him out after the fact, he just thanked them for the support and waved them on their way.

“I’ll never forget that,” the guy continued. “The way you punched Ging Freecs! It was awesome! You’re like, our _hero_ , man.”

Leorio laughed at that, and when he began to pedal, there was a new swagger in his movements. It had been a good thing to hear. And when he finished, Ginta tossed him an energy drink. From the looks of the label, it was a different flavor to the one Biscuit had been given. He resolved to try them all, by the end of his stay there. Maybe, he thought, as he downed the bottle—this place, and the people who inhabited it, weren’t all that bad. He had a lot to learn, but if there was one thing Leorio knew he excelled at, it was that he made a very dedicated student.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. 450 kilograms is equal to 992 pounds. I chose that number because that’s about the heaviest weight a human has been able to lift on record, and I figured that’d be a good number for the low end for Hunters to lift. For reference, Leorio weighs 85 kilograms (187 pounds). I believe when they started training with Zeburo, the weights were about 50 kilograms?
> 
> 2\. The swimmer is meant to be Gracchan, Morau’s Sea Hunter buddy.
> 
> 3\. Thank you for reading! I would appreciate and value your comments.


End file.
